Friday, December 7, 2012

London Birds: "It is a mystery to me"

This past summer a female cardinal kept her eye on me whenever I stepped quietly onto my front lawn to snap a picture of her in my apricot tree. It was a rare day when I saw much more than a touch of her raised head and wary gaze.

Now it is December and I can take all the pictures I want of the messy remains of the cardinal's nest without disturbing anyone. But I have questions.

What happened to the female cardinal? One day last summer several twigs from her nest appeared on my front sidewalk and I never saw her in the tree again. I recall that earlier I'd felt the nest had not been very well constructed. A strong wind could have unsettled her haphazard construction. And what happened to her fledglings? I'm sure I caught a glimpse of them too at one time. Perhaps a starling wrecked havoc upon the nest and young birds.

I'll never know the answers. But the nest's remains remind me to this day there is a mystery attached to the tree outside my front door.